BOY: [boi] n. 1. A noise with dirt on it.

Twenty-three years ago today, I gave birth for the last time.  Being the seasoned mother of twin two-year-old girls at the time, I thought I had this motherhood stuff down pat!  After all, our girls had very different personalities - one liked to be cuddled and rocked, while the other preferred being left alone with her blankey.  One was more emotional, while the other was more nurturing.  One took a pacifier, and the other relied on her fingers.  One was bold in her approach to any physical obstacles, while her sister was extremely cautious.  So what could possibly be different about this new baby, I asked?

Plenty.

For one, he was a boy.  I remember before we had our boy, one of my friends who had two boys at the time called me one day.  As we visited on the phone, she said, "Sorry, I have to go - Conrad is standing in the middle of the dining room table!"  Conrad was two.  My thoughts at that time were something to the effect of, "Why are your children out of control?"  I got the answer to that when our boy entered our world - boys are just different!  (I thought about that conversation many times later when I was retrieving Caleb from the middle of our dining room table. . . )

Caleb came into this world "all boy."  He would play while humming his own action music.  This sometimes got him into trouble during church.  He would also make sounds - car sounds, truck sounds, lawnmower sounds, airplane sounds, and on and on.  The girls and I would just stare at him in amazement - where did he come from?  When he couldn't find a toy gun, Caleb would make one out of his sisters' Barbie dolls - bending them at the waist, their legs formed the barrel, and he would run around making gun sounds, shooting us with his self-created pistol.

Not only was Caleb a boy - which was a whole new animal for me - but he came with his unique personality.  If you know Caleb, I don't have to explain. And if you don't know Caleb, I really can't explain it.  Caleb has NEVER met a stranger - from the time he was a little tike in his stroller, he would draw unwelcomed attention to us in the library as he very LOUDLY told other patrons "Hi!"  This behavior also carried over into our worship assemblies - as the men who served the Lord's supper passed by, I would have to be quick with my hand over Caleb's mouth to muffle his loud, enthusiastic greetings to them.  And then there was the grocery store, where he liked to stand in the back of the cart and belt out his favorite Bible class tunes - The Ten Plagues Song was his all-time favorite.  Imagine the looks I got when he - in his operatic voice - enthusiastically ended with "...locusts, thick darkness, DEATH OF THE FIRSTBORN!"

Caleb loves people, and Caleb loves life.  As a result of those two qualities, Caleb is well-known by a lot of people.  For most mothers I know, the pattern of motherhood is the same - your child is born and grows to the point where they have friends, and your identity changes.  You become "Johnny's mother" instead of your name.  This continues until sometime during high school, when your identity changes back to "Mrs. Jones."  With me, my identity never changed back - I'm still known by many as "Caleb's mother."  Last year while at a work event with Jeff, two different women I had never met before came up to me and asked a question - not "are you Jeff's wife?" - which is what you would think they would ask, considering the setting.  No, they both asked, "Are you Caleb's mother?"

My "baby" - that boy who changed our lives in the Stewart home - turns 23 today.  I could write volumes about Caleb, his character, the things he does in service to God and others, his love for people, and what a unique and special young man he is.  But all of that would just embarrass him.  So, I'll just say Happy Birthday, Bud!  No mother has EVER had a better son - I say that without hesitation or threat of refutation.  YOU'VE taught ME all of your life - to see things through the eyes of a boy.  To love people.  To find wonder and laughter in every little thing in life.  And to take myself a little less seriously.  I am a different person than I was 23 years ago - better - because of you.

The biblical Caleb was described by God in Numbers 14:24 as ..."My servant,...who has a different spirit, and follows me whole- heartedly."  We couldn't have thought of any better name for our Caleb - because he does have a different spirit and he follows God wholeheartedly.  I am thankful every day for our children, and the unique blessings each one has brought to my life.   I could write two very similar stories about Sarah and Becca, and what it means to be a "girl mom," and how two girls born on the same day into the same family can bring so much variety to a family - that will be two more posts for two different days.  But on THIS day, I'm especially grateful that on February 5, 1993, God saw fit to make me a boy mom. THIS boy's mom.   The best "noise with dirt on it" that I could ever hope to have.